Feb. 12 Deadline to Apply for Peace with Justice Day Grants

WASHINGTON, D.C. — February 12 is the deadline to apply for a Peace with Justice grant from the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society (GBCS).

Funding for this program is generated through the Peace with Justice Special Sunday offering of The United Methodist Church. One of six Special Sundays in the denomination, Peace with Justice “witnesses to God’s demands for a faithful, just, disarmed and secure world.” Peace with Justice Sunday is May 30 in 2010.

Peace with Justice grants are awarded annually. In 2009, $52,805 was granted to 28 Peace with Justice ministries.

Grant applicants must be either a United Methodist or other affiliated organization, or an ecumenical group working with and through at least one United Methodist agency or organization.

Applicants must work toward achieving at least one of the following objectives:
• Assist United Methodists in understanding and responding to violence and militarism, and in moving and leading nations and peoples to reconciliation, transformation, and redemption.
• Involve and develop principal leaders among United Methodists and enjoin the general public in efforts to end conflicts, human rights violations and violent aggression around the world;
• Promote just national and international policies and actions (governmental and non-governmental) seeking to address poverty and restore communities; or
• Support policies that promote systematic economic justice and the self-development of peoples, in particular to respond to the disproportionate effect of injustices on racial, indigenous and ethnic persons.
• Preference will be given to institutions related to The United Methodist Church, then to first-time requests and, finally, to those including an advocacy component in their program or project.

Applications will be evaluated by GBCS’s Board of Directors.

Applicants may seek assistance in filling out the form, Peace with Justice Grant form, which is available on the GBCS website or by contacting Marvlyn Scott, (202) 488-5643.

For more information or to request an application form also, contact Mark Harrison, GBCS director of Peace with Justice, (202) 488-5645.